Find your Creative Compass

There is a seam of gold that runs deep in each and every one of us and that is our ability to be creative. Using our Creative Compass, we find ways out of danger, out of grief, out of sorrow and loss. We strike out into the unknown with a map we’ve made ourselves, we learn from our mistakes and we choose a different path, we originate and innovate, we challenge ourselves out of our comfort zones, and we follow our imaginations to dream up exciting new futures.

This week our students at the Pure Coaching Academy graduated with flying colours. For eight weeks Carole Ann Rice and I coached them through a creative and innovative programme that trained them to be coaches themselves. It is a transformational process on many levels, therapeutically, creatively, professionally, in the way they think, question and communicate.

Spring ’15 Pure Coaching Academy Graduates

Lee, went from a grey existence in finance, to stand up comedy and is now heading to a retreat in the Himalayas to deepen his spiritual coaching practice. Juliette was in advertising and is now moving to Brighton to set up her Coastal Walks Coaching practice. Jose has gone from Corporate to Super Sales Marketeer with a coaching approach to her team. Salome is specializing in helping people balance spirituality with their careers. Natalie who flew in from Milan each week is focusing on helping young women manage their money. Karen, from a marketing background, is coaching thirty-somethings who have reached their goals but are now faced with the mind numbing thought “is this it?”. Kate is now helping other women who find themselves in a place where the bottom has fallen out of their world and the only way is up, and Lydia is coaching people to believe that anything is possible and guiding University Leavers straight into employment. What incredible achievements in such a short space of time. It just shows the power of using our innate creative skills to change our lives.

Everyone has an inner creative compass they can use to transform their lives. When you feel stuck, tap into your natural creative resources and use them to shift your thinking and find a better way forward.

One step at a time

5 Top Tips on creating a happier day

1. Create a vision board of found images that conjure up everything you’d like to part of your life

2. Think of three shining things that you did and write them in a journal at the end of each day

3. Take a photo of something that inspires you or makes you laugh. It gets you out of your head and makes you observe the wonders and weirdness of the world around you.

4. Find a beautiful stone or pebble and put it in your pocket. In moments of doubt hold it in your hand, feel it’s texture, temperature, weight. This focuses your mind and calms your body.

5. Spend a day acting ‘as if’ you are full of the joys of spring. Walk tall, breathe deeply, smile, do a random of act of kindness, notice everything yellow, repeat the phrase ‘today I have a spring in my step’. Record how your performance made you feel.

For help in finding your creative compass and fixing your life why not get yourself a coach?

Lou Hamilton coaches people who are feeling stuck by helping them tap into their own natural creative resources, shift their thinking and find a better way forward. Try a 30 minute introductory session.

If you are interested in any of the coaching practices of our graduate coaches, or would like to train to become coach at the Pure Coaching Academy contact me and I will refer you on. Find out more about the creative work of Lou Hamilton at Create Lab Studio Hub